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Lance Armstrong says he would never have won TDF without doping

Lance Armstrong joined The Dan Patrick Show on Thursday morning to discuss the use of PEDs in the sport of cycling and to explain his use of performance-enhancing drugs during several years of competing at the Tour de France.

While the seven-time champion of the world's biggest cycling event (all titles of which he's been stripped) maintained a tone of contrition during the interview, he did call doping during his career a "necessary evil of that era."

Armstrong admitted that his opinions on peformance-enhancing drugs as a necessity are unpopular, but he went on to say that he would never have won a yellow jersey without their assistance. When asked if he could have won the Tour de France without doping, Armstrong again referenced the circumstances of the early- to mid-2000s.

"Not in that era, no. I think most people would recognize - especially people that were on those battlefields would agree - that it was an arms race at the time. It was a high-octance era, and there were no tests. You couldn't detect certain things like you can now. So, no, certainly not at that time."

As for whether or not it is possible to win clean in the current world of cycling, Armstrong thinks so.

"I suspect you could [win without doping] today," said Armstrong. "But not from the late-80s to the mid-2000s."